I don't believe having a dimmer on a ceiling fan is a good idea...

well, I'm on the lam but I ain't no sheep...maybe He just want's it all to go by a little more slowly...like me 

could the CFs be failing in the fans because of dimmers?

could the CFs be failing in the fans because of dimmers?

I would say that is from working at Ford for 30 years but he has been like that his entire life, our Black Sheep.

could the CFs be failing in the fans because of dimmers?

The CF;s didn't like my ceiling fans either and those small base CF's are not cheap so I also went back to filament bulbs. The wiring is new so I figured it was the vinration killing them.

why bring me into this?

I'm concerned that the little house is going to need some serious electrical work before I sell it. But as fate would have it my brother is an electrician, trained by the IBEW, and working at Ford for 30 years. Only problem is things have to be done at his leisurely pace which is why I won't even have him look until the house is vacant, that way he can somewhat take his time.

Funny you should mention that... we have ceiling fans in the living room and both bedrooms.  When we moved in we replaced all the bulbs in the house with CFs, including the ones in the ceiling fan fixtures.  Within weeks, we started having issues with the CF bulbs - flickering and then finally blowing out.  I assumed the inconsistent voltage of the old wiring was too much for them so I put old-style bulbs back in those fixtures only.  No more flickering or blowing.

Most those ceiling fixtures especially if they have CF bulbs will never draw more than an amp. Even with a ceiling fan it wont be much higher than that. Those old wires will just be loafing along and not generating much heat.

A month or so ago, I had an electrician come out and give me an estimate on re-wiring the entire house.  I said I didn't want any additional outlets or lights with the exception of making a four-pack out of the outlet near our living room electronics and a 30-amp dedicated exterior outlet in back for a future hot tub.  His estimate was $5k-$5.5k for the job.

Last weekend, I started putting R-30 insulation up in the attic wherever I could; i.e. where the old wiring isn't.  I did a bit of looking around while up there and learned that a good bit of the wiring has already been replaced.  It looks as if most of the wall sockets have been upgraded with ROMEX, but the ceiling light fixtures are still connected to the old knob & tube stuff.  This is very encouraging, as it will make a huge dent in the contractor's estimate.  I'm going to pickup one of those gizmos that you plug in a socket and it will tell you if it's grounded or not; that will tell be definitively which sockets have been re-wired.  Isn't there also a sort of clamp tool that will indicate whether or not a wire is live or dead?  That sort of thing would be useful in finding the parts of the old wiring that have been abandoned so I can bury them with insulation.

Well, except that I don't want to pile insulation over the old stuff.  No old fuses; we have a modern breaker box.

well it's easy to tell if a socket is grounded by whether it has a 3 holes in it. Unfortunately that is no guarantee since sometimes people have replaced the 2 prong socket with a 2 + ground when it hasn't been re-wired. There are relatively inexpensive test devices to help. 
First of all, if your sockets have 2 prongs, they are not grounded. If they have 2 + ground  there is a plug in device that will also determine whether the hook-ups are proper; ie the neutral or white wire is connected properly to the wide slot. This is very important.
Also, there is a small device that you can simply hold over any electrical cable that will light and buzz and indicate whether the wire is hot. 

A month or so ago, I had an electrician come out and give me an estimate on re-wiring the entire house.  I said I didn't want any additional outlets or lights with the exception of making a four-pack out of the outlet near our living room electronics and a 30-amp dedicated exterior outlet in back for a future hot tub.  His estimate was $5k-$5.5k for the job.

Last weekend, I started putting R-30 insulation up in the attic wherever I could; i.e. where the old wiring isn't.  I did a bit of looking around while up there and learned that a good bit of the wiring has already been replaced.  It looks as if most of the wall sockets have been upgraded with ROMEX, but the ceiling light fixtures are still connected to the old knob & tube stuff.  This is very encouraging, as it will make a huge dent in the contractor's estimate.  I'm going to pickup one of those gizmos that you plug in a socket and it will tell you if it's grounded or not; that will tell be definitively which sockets have been re-wired.  Isn't there also a sort of clamp tool that will indicate whether or not a wire is live or dead?  That sort of thing would be useful in finding the parts of the old wiring that have been abandoned so I can bury them with insulation.

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This device will tell you what wires are live without actual contact with the electricity...
If only the overhead light circuits are still old wiring I'd just leave it as they are not likely to fail. As long as all the outlets are wired correctly with Romex you should be ok. Unless you still have a fuse box instead of breakers of course but that can be switched out for a lot less than also  pulling new wires throughout the house.

A month or so ago, I had an electrician come out and give me an estimate on re-wiring the entire house.  I said I didn't want any additional outlets or lights with the exception of making a four-pack out of the outlet near our living room electronics and a 30-amp dedicated exterior outlet in back for a future hot tub.  His estimate was $5k-$5.5k for the job.

Last weekend, I started putting R-30 insulation up in the attic wherever I could; i.e. where the old wiring isn't.  I did a bit of looking around while up there and learned that a good bit of the wiring has already been replaced.  It looks as if most of the wall sockets have been upgraded with ROMEX, but the ceiling light fixtures are still connected to the old knob & tube stuff.  This is very encouraging, as it will make a huge dent in the contractor's estimate.  I'm going to pickup one of those gizmos that you plug in a socket and it will tell you if it's grounded or not; that will tell be definitively which sockets have been re-wired.  Isn't there also a sort of clamp tool that will indicate whether or not a wire is live or dead?  That sort of thing would be useful in finding the parts of the old wiring that have been abandoned so I can bury them with insulation.

Resetting a breaker or replacing a fuse is within the tennants realm. But replacing the breaker would definitely be the landlords responsibility in the states, unless there was some really unusual circumstance was put together. It sounds like there may be some other wiring issues going on, and from a purely liability standpoint I would think the landlord would want to be all over it.

In re-reading (okay actually carefully reading for the first time) Rose's message. I'm wondering if "hot water boiler" is a teapot or somesuch instead of a boiler for hydronic  heat or a water heater. If these are all plug in appliances that are dying, then the first thing I would check is line voltage and quality (but what do I know, I'm just a marrette).  Voltage can be checked with a simple meter, quality will require a little more (something like a Kill-a-watt - starting at about $20). If the voltage is high, low or really poor quality that might cause issues with the appliances.  Also, how is grounding?

Well...kinda depends on the contract.  And looking over the circuit breaker could be something she is expected/allowed to do.